When My Name was Keoko- Settings

The story took place in South Korea, but it was part of Japan at that time because of Japan's victory. The conflicts mostly happen in Sun-hee and Tae-Yul's house and also in their schools. Later, Uncle gets locked in North Korea after Japan surrenders. Then, Korea gets back their freedom.

When my name was Keoko- Characaters

Sun-hee is the female main character in "When my name was Keoko". She is a 10 years old Korean girl and is curious about everything. She wants to know everything that's going on in Japan and her home. She is not brave and is afraid of what her uncle is doing. Sun- Hee misunderstands most of the situation and cause some problems. But she tries her best to support her family.
Tae-Yul is a very brave male character who is 13years old. He is the bravest character in this historical fiction because of his efforts toward his family and Korea. He decides to join the Japanese army even though he know that it't very dangerous. Also when he heard Japanes officers saying that Koreans are cowards, he makes up his mind to do the secret mission. He decides to become Kamikaze which is a suicidal pilot. Tae-Yul is very intelligent and always thinks before he act. He cooperates with his sister, Sun-Hee well and is very generous.

Theme

The theme for "When my name was Keoko" is that even though you change your name, can not speak your own language, and can't have anything related to your culture, the fact about who you are doesn't change. The characters Sun-hee and Tae-yul are Koreans but they were forced to change their name to Japanese: Keoko and Nobuo. Also, they were not allowed to speak or wirte any Korean. Although it was like Korea doesn't exist anymore, the spirit in the characters' mind never disappears. They know that they are Koreans and just because Japanese try to change their culture doesn't mean that their identity changes as well. You might be changed physically but the fact about who you are never changes.

Secret

I can't tell my REAL secret, because it is a secret, but I can tell one of my biggest secrets. Last week, I made an amazing discovery. I was reading a book on the sofa of living room and suddenly, the wind blew and it dropped my bookmark under the sofa. When I looked under to find my bookmark, I could see something shiny and it was a packet of potato chip. I could also see lollipops and Sunchips. I soon realized that my little sister hides all her snacks here. :) No wonder why I thought that she eats her snacks so quickly. Anyway, know one knows that I know where my sister hides her snacks, even my sister herself. She always brings her snacks and leave it there, and don't realize that some of her snacks are missing when I take some. But now, everyone know where the snacks are because I'm exposing it right now. So, I should remove the snacks to a different place.

Courage

It was when our school went to the Everland at the end of the year. Soomin, Seoyoung, and I were having a lot of fun and tried to ride almost all the roller costers in the Everland. We rode every single ones that we saw (if the line wasn't too long) and finally faced the really humungus one, which looked very scary. The name of that roller coaster was "Eagle", I guess, and it surely did move as fast as an eagle. We were staring at it for few minutes, can't decide to ride it or not. Then I saw a group of people comming out of that roller coaster and their face looked very very pale. Just looking at them and hearing the screams threated me. I decided to not ride it. Soomin and I were turning back and were trying to look for a different ride when Seoyoung grabbed our hands. She pulled them and pointed toward that horrible roller coaster with a big smile on her face. "It looks fun :) We should try that~," said Seoyoung, and I still remember her horrible smile. So, we all decided to ride it but it took me a lot of thoughts and courage. 'What if I desperately want to stop while riding it?' I thought. But anyway, I decided to try because I wanted to challenge myself. Also, when someone ask what you rode in Everland, I can't say that I rode Merry- go -round. If I ride that roller coaster, then I can proudly say that I rode the really scary one. Finally we were in line and it was almost our turn to ride. We wore seatbelts and the ride started. Then, I was so surprised to find out how exciting it was! It wasn't scary at all!!! When we got off, I was thinking that it was great to have courage and take the chance. I learned that I should always have courage because, then I can face any difficulties :)